Tilly is a little girl who lives with her five animal friends in a little yellow house, and readers meet them all, one by one, in this inaugural title of a six-book series. Tilly sits reading her yellow book (metafictively inclined readers may read into this what they will). First Tiptoe invites her to play music (“ROOTY-TOOT-TOOT!”), then Hector the pig joins them to dance the “wiggly-woo.” Doodle the crocodile beckons them to a feast, which is interrupted by Pru the hen. Tumpty the elephant ends Pru’s “pretty-prance” by taking them all for a ride, after which Tilly settles the group down with a story. That’s pretty much it. Although the visual aesthetic is quite different—Dunbar’s delicate line-and-color figures romp on an expanse of beige space—the emotional dynamic has been played out over and over again by Maisy and her friends. Still, even if it’s all a bit twee, it’s also pitched perfectly to its toddler audience. Happy Hector (ISBN: 978-0-7636-4110-8) publishes simultaneously, with the other four “coming soon.” (Picture book. 2-5)
